The arrival of the winter solstice, is floating in the festive atmosphere. You will see everyone gathering together for celebration. It’s just like the western Christmas seasons, one celebrating with turkey, another with rice ball dumpling.

冬至的到来，充满着浓浓的节日气氛，你会看到大家聚在一起大肆庆祝一番。这好比西方的耶旦节，吃的是火鸡，华人吃的则是“汤圆”。

Rice ball dumpling, in additional to its shape of delegative round, it is wrapped with flour and stuffed with knead, lotus seed paste, peanuts, sesame etc. The lightly sweet taste filled and warm the stomach in the winter.

汤圆，它的外形除了代表团团圆圆外，以面粉搓成包住的不同的内馅，有莲蓉，花生等等，吃起来让人感觉甜甜蜜蜜。

This warm in the winter, fullfilled my stomach and warm my heart just like rejoicing the human race and traditional close relationship. Just like the tree roots wrapped around the earth, it is the image of the extension to the traditional practices of intergenerational, how appropriate!

Today, is not end of the world, is just the beginning of all seasons. Let’s have the rice dumplings as wine and toast to our heart content, I wish all of you a wonderful festives, happy and healthy life all year round!

Happy beginnings to you as the wonderful celebrations bring in the sweet sounds of bells chiming and singing throughout our earth. May your dumplings fill your stomach with much health, love and peace in 2013 and beyond.

I’m so glad I found your blog this year – many of your postings fill the soul. Bless your heart and good cheer my friend. Mary

She held him tightly, wishing she could pull him inside of her. Pull her inside of him. Something. Someplace where the unrelenting tug and pull between them could finally end. Drip, drip—that was the sound of her heart bleeding all over his feet. Tangled Moon ~ by Olivia Stocum